


The Pilot and The Blade

by BaconPants



Series: Constants and Variables [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games), Evolve (Video Game), Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Titanfall (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Developing Friendships, Gen, Giant Robots, Monsters, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2019-12-25 09:36:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18258650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaconPants/pseuds/BaconPants
Summary: When a mission goes sideways, and a monster is accidentally let loose, a pilot finds herself having to work with someone from another world.





	1. War Games

“This is a battle of Attrition, pilots. Good luck.”

  
Jumping onto and off of the walls, and practically flying over the grunts on the ground, the pilot had only one thing on her mind: winning. She threw out her Pulse-Blade, revealing three enemy pilots about to come around the corner. “Easy targets”, she thought as the Gravity-Star left her hand. Two of the three got caught in the pull of the star, as the pilot unloaded her Alternator’s magazine into the two of them. The first one went down from a few shots in the head, and the other from the Gravity-Star’s explosion. The third phased in from behind the pilot, attempting to catch her by surprise, only to be met with an RE-45 to the face.

  
“Do you always need to show off?” Another pilot grappled towards her. “Didn’t notice I was showing off.” “Just leave some kills for the rest of us, Fade.” Said the Grapple pilot swinging up and in through a window. “Not my fault you’re a little slow, Jackson.” “Oh, its on now.” he replied over the radio. Fade could never resist a challenge. She leaped back onto and off of the walls, shooting and kicking her way through groups of Grunts and Spectres dropping in.

  
Jackson swung overhead, into another interior section of the map. Fade tossed a Tick in through a nearby window, hoping to score any kills in there before he could. The Tick exploded, killing an enemy pilot, before Jackson could even raise his weapon to meet the enemy. “Hey! Come on, Walker, that’s cheating!” Jackson complained. “So is using the Smart-pistol, Jacks’.” “Fair enough.”

  
She jumped up to a rooftop, quickly surveying the area around her. She took a moment to reload her Alternator, when her radar pinged to her right. An enemy pilot was running right at her, catching her by surprise. Pulling out her RE-45, she unloaded a few rounds into the incoming pilot, only for them to disintegrate, turning out to be a Holo-pilot. “Damn.” Fade suddenly found herself being thrown onto her back by the actual enemy pilot. Expecting a knife in the face, she was surprised to see the enemy above her get blasted backwards. “Bamboozled?” Jackson asked her, trying to hold back a chuckle. “Shut up.” Fade picked herself back up, and started off again towards the action again.

  
Throwing her other Tick at a group of Spectres, Fade hit the ground in a slide, firing round after round into one pilot, followed by an uppercut to another. “Your Titan is ready, pilot. Call it when you are.” Seeing an enemy Titan on her radar, Fade made her way to higher ground. Thunderbolt in hand, she found a good line of sight on the hostile Monarch, and fired a ball of arc energy from the weapon.  
The Monarch turned to find where the attack had come from, while Fade was already repositioning herself and firing at the Titan again. The Monarch was now walking towards where Fade had fired at them.

  
“Rodger that, pilot. Standby for Titanfall.”

  
Fade fired at the Monarch a third time, this time letting the Titan see her. As the Titan started towards her, firing a rocket-salvo in her direction, she slid behind cover. Fade only needed to draw them a little closer and… “Yes!” The Monarch and its pilot were crushed underneath Fade’s Ion.  
Embarking into her Titan, Fade felt tall, powerful, and that she could take on the whole damn world. She loved that feeling. To her, it was just one of the perks of the job. The screens lit up, and Fade could see several Titans falling in the distance. It was time to have some real fun.

  
Setting her sights on a Northstar by the back wall of the map, Fade fired a Laser-shot at the Titan, drawing its attention. The Northstar deployed a tether trap and started charging up its Plasma-railgun. Fade moved closer, peppering the enemy Titan with bursts of plasma from her Splitter-rifle. The Northstar fired at the incoming Ion, only for Fade to catch the shot in her Vortex-shield and send it right back at the Northstar. Fade took one step too close, getting tethered to the ground. Temporarily immobilized, Fade looked for the base of the tether, when an enemy Tone began firing at her from behind. “We are outnumbered, pilot. Recommend use of Vortex-shield.” the Ion’s rudimentary A.I. warned her. Fade didn’t panic, though. She had been in similar situations before, and knew how to get out of them in one piece.

  
Fade turned to face the Tone, and threw out her Laser-tripwire, keeping it at a distance for now. The Tone fired one, two, three shots into Fade’s Ion, and released a volley of rockets at her. Catching the rockets, Fade redirected the attack at the Northstar, crippling it and charging her core. The tether broke and she was free to move toward the doomed Titan in front of her. The Northstar threw a fist at Fade in defense, but Fade had caught it in her massive left hand. Her Laser-shot cut the arm off the doomed Titan, and she took out its leg with its own arm, bringing the Northstar’s cockpit to gun level. Fade shoved her Splitter-rifle into the Titan’s face, and disintegrated the pilot inside with a few split-shots. “Laser-core ready.” With the Northstar taken care of, Fade turned her attention to the Tone. The Tone put up its particle wall and started firing at Fade again. Catching and releasing the 40mm shots back at the Tone, Fade moved closer knowing that this Tone wouldn’t last much longer. “Laser-core activated.” Fade’s Ion unleashed a massive laser-beam from its face, tearing through the screwed Tone like a hot knife through melted butter. With no options left, the enemy pilot ejected from his Titan, only to get shot down a second later by a laser-shot.

  
“Get Goosed, bitch!”

  
Fade felt like she was on top of the world, and that nothing could possibly bring her down now.

  
“It was close, pilots, but we lost. Get to the dropship.”

  
“WHAT?!” Fade couldn’t believe what she had just heard, but when the word ‘Defeated’ popped up on her Hud, she felt like she was face-down on the ground. The evac-point wasn’t far, and there was still time left before the ship came, so Fade started heading towards the end of the fight.

  
The evac-point was a mess of Titans burning on the ground, and Pilots flying through the air. Fade began firing at an enemy Titan, melting away its health with her Splitter-rifle on full spread. *BANG* Fade’s vision was blurred, and her Titan’s movement impaired. “We are under attack from an enemy pilot.” “Really? No shit, Ion.” “Warning: enemy pilot on our hull.” Fade released her electric smoke, blanketing the area around her, driving nearby Titans back and making the rodeo pilot jump off of her. Pulling back her fist, Fade set her sights on the pilot. Her massive fist almost reaching, if not for Jackson’s grapple pulling the enemy away from her. “Hey! Kill thief!” “What?” Jackson responded, kicking the flailing pilot square in the head. “I didn’t see your name on it.” Frustrated and kind of pissed, Fade didn’t notice the incoming Flame-core until it had already doomed her Titan. “Warning: core exposed. Eject, pilot.”

  
Ejecting from the Ion, Fade rocketed up above the fight. With a clear view of the battle below, Fade plotted her next moves. As she fell back down to the ground, the evac ship arrived, with her fellow pilots rushing to escape. “Fifteen seconds. I’ve got this.” Fade hit the roof of a building and took off onto the walls of the map. A hostile pilot had seen her land, and was now chasing her. She was almost at the dropship when an EPG shot flew right past her head. Thinking on her feet, or off her feet in this case, Fade jumped off the wall, with a Gravity-star leaving her hand. The pilot fired twice more only for the first shot to slingshot back around into themselves, and the second flying towards- “Hey Jacks’!” Catching the grapple pilot’s attention, stopping him in his tracks, Jackson turned away from the dropship and noticed the EPG shot an inch from his face. Jackson exploded into a cloud of red mist, and what was left of him dropped to the ground and disintegrated. “Paybacks a bitch, isn’t it?” With only two seconds before departure, Fade got into the evac-ship and evacuated the match.

  
“Simulation complete.”


	2. One last chance

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?”

  
The sim-pod opened, and Fade could feel the decompressed air flowing through her short, dark hair.

  
“What are you talking about, Jacks’?” The other pilot approached her with the biggest scowl on his face. “You saw an EPG shot flying towards me, and your first thought was ‘Hey, why don’t I distract Jackson over there, and get him exploded. That’ll be funny and not at all uncalled for. :P” “Oh, come on man, it was just a simulation, and besides you’re the one who made it a contest.” “That’s not an excuse to be a dick to your teammates!”  
By now the other pilots had left their pods, and were watching the argument happening in front of them. “You’re just salty that I had more kills at the end than you did.” “You didn’t have the highest score, though. I did.” Jackson retorted. Fade took a moment to process what he just said “Wait, what?”

  
Fade went to check the scoreboard nearby. Her green eyes were shocked to see that Jackson was right. While she did in fact have more pilot kills than him, he did have an overall higher score from the amount of minion kills he scored. “Are you shitting me right now!?”

  
Fade was visibly pissed off that she placed lower on the scoreboard than Jackson, and as she turned back to face him, more pilots, and a few grunts started crowding around them, waiting for something to happen. Someone in the crowd even started chanting “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT…” Both pilots heard the rising chants demanding a fight, and being a naturally competitive person, Fade wouldn’t mind putting on a show for everyone else.  
Fade stepped closer to Jackson, but kept a fair amount of distance between the two of them. “Well?” Fade asked. “Well what?” Jackson asked back. “Are we gonna settle this or what?” “There’s nothing to settle. I beat you, fair and square.” “From killing grunts and spectres. I had more pilot kills than you, so if you want to prove that you’re the better pilot, then come at me bro.” “That’s not at all what I said. I said that I got a higher score than you, because I was focused on helping the team and playing the objective, while you were focused on showing off.”

  
That did it. Fade pulled her arm back to strike, getting the spectators excited for the one on one match about to happen, when one of the grunts spoke up above the cheering and shouting of the crowd. “Commander on deck!”  
Everyone fell silent and stood at attention, as Commander Sarah Briggs stepped into the room. “At ease, everyone. Pilot Walker, I need to speak with you. The rest of you are all dismissed.”  
Everyone else left the room, with Jackson glaring at Fade with a look that said “Paybacks a bitch, isn’t it?” Fade, at this point, was internally panicking as the commander of the Marauder Corps took a few steps closer towards her. Did she see the argument? Was she watching the attrition match beforehand? Exactly how screwed am I right now?

  
“I understand that you’ve applied for the SRS, pilot” the commander said.

  
Fade was shocked that this was the first thing she said to her after everything that just happened. Fade responded “Yes ma’am, four times.”

  
“And not once were you accepted, correct.”

  
“Well, yes, if I was accepted the previous three times, I wouldn’t need to try a fourth time.” Commander Briggs laughed a little at that. “Why are you so determined to join the SRS, Pilot Walker?”  
Fade took a moment to consider the question. “I think that I would be more useful going on more important missions than just battles of attrition, or bounty hunts. I know I have the skill and I think that I have what it takes to make it.”

  
“Then why do you think you were rejected three times?” Commander Briggs asked in response.

  
“I… I don’t know ma’am. Why was I rejected three times?”

  
“Your application was rejected three times because you’ve been shown to be reckless, not a team player, and like your friend said, more focused on showing off than on completing the objective.”

  
Fade was shocked and a little confused by this explanation. In her mind, she was just trying to be the best pilot she could be, and the SRS would be the last step to achieving that.

  
The commander continued “The SRS is a team, and while a little recklessness isn’t uncommon in pilots, you need to be able to work with a partner to get the job done, and so far, you haven’t exactly been the best at not getting your teammates exploded.”

  
“In my defense, “ Fade responded “it was pretty cool, though.”

  
“As ‘cool’ as that may have been, had that not been a simulation, a pilot would be dead.”

  
Fade couldn’t really argue with that part, but she still felt that she could prove herself worthy enough.

  
“There has to be something I can do. Something, or anything to prove that I’m worthy enough for the SRS.”

  
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Pilot Walker.”

  
Fade was confused now. First, she comes here to scold me, then she offers me a chance at what I want? WTF?! “Yes, Commander?”

  
“Scouting teams have reported that the IMC have been investigating a number of anomalies throughout the Frontier, and we need a team to find out what it is their doing, and put a stop to it. If you’re up for it, you’ll be sent with a team to the planet Troy. You will need to work together to get this job done. If you can do that, I’ll consider you for the SRS. If not, then you can forget about a fifth attempt. This will be your last chance, Walker. Will you take it?”

  
Fade didn’t need to think about this decision. If this was her last chance at her goals, then she was going to take it, no matter how much she thinks a team will just slow her down. “I won’t let you down, Commander. You can count on that.”

  
“I certainly hope so, Pilot. You’ll be sent out in twelve hours, I suggest you get ready.”


	3. The Jump

Fade sat in the dropship, her two teammates sitting across from her, a Cloak and a Phase Shift pilot, talking about… well she didn’t really know or care all that much. They had been going back and forth saying “No” “Yes” “No” “Yes” over and over again, driving her crazy.

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Fade asked the pilots, in an attempt to get them to shut up, or at least say something different.

The cloak pilot spoke first. “Whether or not we’ll find something cool or interesting, like aliens, or treasure, or another fold weapon, or the loch ness monster or something at the research base. I don’t think that’s very likely, but Satchel here thinks- “

“IT COULD HAPPEN, TAYLOR! DON’T CRUSH MY DREAMS OF RIDING A NESSIE INTO BATTLE!” the phase shift pilot shouted into his friend’s ear.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Fade asked confused.

“The loch ness monster,” Satchel began “it’s this old legend from the core systems about this giant sea monster- “

“I think she meant the other things, buddy.” Taylor said, disappointing his overly enthusiastic friend. “Reports say the IMC’s ARES division have been investigating anomalies popping up around the frontier, and that they’ve been collecting things from them.”

“Collecting things? What kind of things?” Fade asked.

“Don’t know.” Taylor answered. “That’s what were here to find out, and if it turns out to be bad for us then…” Satchel then pulled out a duffle bag with about fifteen satchel charges stuffed into it.

“Well that certainly explains the name ‘Satchel’.” Fade said looking at the bag of dangerous explosives that she was now wondering why she hadn’t noticed them at any point before on their thirty-minute ride to the planet Troy.

 “These are my babies, and imma make em go boom. :)” The simulacrum said, squeezing the bag tight.

“Is he okay?” Fade asked the cloak pilot, only getting a shrug from him in response.

A few minutes later, they were right above the drop-point. Taylor got up and approached the back of the dropship. “Alright, we all know the plan. We drop in a few klicks away from the research station, and make our way through the forest undetected. Once were there, Walker and I will scout around and see what we can find. Satchel, you’ll go around and plant explosives around the place. Remember, we only go loud if something goes wrong, otherwise we stay as quiet as possible. We shouldn’t expect to find much though, but be prepared either way.”

Taylor pulled the handle hanging from the ceiling, opening the back of the dropship. “We jump on my signal.”

Fade and Satchel were standing behind Taylor, who was acting as jumpmaster, waiting to start their decent into the forest below. Looking out at the dark skyline, Fade could see the stars hanging over the dense mass of trees below, the only lights being those of themselves, the stars, and the IMC research base in the distance, as well as an old shipwreck and a mostly abandoned colony.

“Three, two, one, JUMP!”

Without thinking twice, the pilots stepped off the edge of the dropship and were flying through the night sky. With the wind against her body, and the stars to light the jump, Fade felt alive. Nothing could take her away from moments like this. Nothing except the ground, that is.

On the ground, the pilots made their way to the research base, the security there being a little tighter than they had anticipated. Grunts and Spectres patrolling the base, a few racks of Stalkers on standby, even a couple Tones standing at the front of the base.

“Look at that Titan, see the markings?” Taylor pointed out to the team.

“Apex Predators.” Fade noted.” “IMC must be really interested in whatever’s here if they’re hiring mercenaries to keep it safe.”

“All the more reason to find out what they’re keeping here.”

“When do I get to use my toys?” Satchel asked, eager to put his explosives to use.

“Soon, first we need to get in the place.”

Fade threw out her Pulse-Blade, giving them a view of the interior defenses by the side entrance. There wasn’t much, just a couple of guards inside near the door. When they found a break in the patrol, Taylor activated his cloak and made his way inside, the other two following behind him. Closing the door behind them, Fade snuck up behind one of the guards, jumping onto his shoulders and stabbing him in the face with her blade. The other guard noticed and before he could alert anyone, Fade had pulled the blade out of the first guard, and threw it into the other.

“Walker, take a look at this terminal, while me and Satchel take a look around.” Taylor ordered.

Fade hated the idea of staying behind while everyone else has all the fun, but since this was her only shot at the SRS, she went to the terminal and started looking through whatever files she could find. “Of course, you guys get to have all the fun, while I get the busy work.” There wasn’t much Fade found that wasn’t encrypted, whatever it was the IMC had there had to be VERY important for that much secrecy. Files labeled ‘Dimensional Rifts’, ‘Objects’, ‘Experiments’, and ‘Specimens’. That last file stood out to Fade. She remembered that during operation Broadsword, pilot Jack Cooper found dozens of deceased and frozen colonists that were used by the IMC for experiments.

“Guys, there’s a file here labeled ‘Specimens’. Do you know if people started moving back into that colony a few klicks away from here?”

“Maybe, “Taylor replied “why do you ask?”

“There’s another file here labeled ‘Experiments’. Its possible they might have people locked up in here, like they had on Typhon.”

“There are a few holding cells here. They might have someone, or _something_ , in them.” Satchel added.

“There’s not a Nessie in here, Satchel, and even if there is anyone in those cells, we still have a job to do. Whatever it is the IMC is doing here, we can’t risk it over a few colonists, Walker.”

That didn’t sit well with Fade. She may be competitive and reckless, but she’s not heartless, and she wasn’t just going to potentially let innocent people blow up. Looking through the base’s systems, Fade found the power, the PA, and the alarms.

“Satchel, are all the charges set?”

“Mostly, what are you thinking?” Satchel asked in curiosity.

“Walker,” Taylor warned, “don’t do anything reckless. We have a job to do.”

Fade thought for a moment. Was being a little reckless right now worth it, or was the mission too important?

“Nah, Imma be reckless.” Fade said, turning on the alarms and the PA system. “Attention everyone, we have intruders by the north-east side of the base, um…, everyone get over there now… over.” Switching off the PA, Fade asked “Satchel, when they get there, blow the charges on that side of the base.”

Taylor started shouting over the radio, “What the hell are you thinking walker! You could have just screwed us all over, do you know that! If we somehow manage to get back to command, I’m going to tell the commander what a liability yo-“ Fade switched off her helmet radio before he could finish his sentence, then turned the PA system back on only in the holding area, which was now free of guards.

“Hey is anybody in there? I can’t see into the cells from where the cameras are angled.”

“Just me I think,” a voice said coming through from one of the cells. “I take it this is some kind of a breakout?”

“An improvised one, but we don’t have much time. We’ve rigged this place with explosives, and we’re gonna blow this place to hell, so you’ll need to get out fast.”

A loud bang rumbled through the base, signaling the action had started. This should be fun, Fade thought.

“Do you think you could open this cage before anything else explodes? The people who put me in here took my things and I’d rather not have them get blown up.” The voice asked.

“I’m working on it. It looks like the systems are set to lock down in case the alarms go off, but if I restart the power, everything should unlock, including the cells.”

“Okay, I would do that then… wait, _all_ the cells?”

By the time he finished speaking, Fade had triggered the system restart. The lights went off for a moment, and Fade could hear gunfire and explosions outside. When the power came back on, the cell doors had opened, and whoever was in the cell had escaped. Fade was relieved and glad that she was able to rescue him from the cell, but the moment of relief was abruptly ended when she heard a monstrous roar coming from outside, and all of the shooting stopped for a moment. Fade switched her radio back on.

“-knew it! I FUCKING KNEW IT!” Satchel shouted excitedly over the radio. “WALKER!” Taylor angrily barked over Satchel’s excitement, “GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!” He was clearly pissed, and something was going down, so Fade quickly downloaded the files onto her Data-knife, and made her way outside, finding an intense battle between the pilots, the IMC, and… “HOLY SHIT!”

A creature, about half the size of a titan, was ripping one of the Tones to shreds. It managed to tear open the cockpit, and it pulled the pilot out and bit their head off, throwing the rest of the body to the side. It started charging trough crowds of Grunts and Spectres, pummeling anyone it could get within reach of its powerful fists and claws, its eyes filled with nothing but rage, hunger, and the drive to kill. Fade was frozen, staring at the spectacle of brutality in front of her, until the creature noticed her standing there, and it picked a massive boulder up off the ground, hurling it in her direction, snapping Fade out of her frozen surprise. Moving just out of the way of the incoming rock, Fade jumped onto the side of the base, looking for a path to higher ground. The monster, however, didn’t need to find a path, and leapt up to side of the building, and climbed up to the roof. “Did it just predict where I was going?” Fade thought. With the roof blocked off now, she figured drawing it over towards the rest of the fighting was better than being its only target. Whatever grunts on the ground that weren’t running for their lives, saw the militia pilot being chased by the monster, and started shooting at both of them, the monster turned its attention to the tiny prey shooting at it, and Fade saw a chance to do some damage to it. She threw a Gravity-star at the grunts, trapping them. The monster approached the trapped people. As it swiped its claws at them, the Gravity-star detonated, lightly injuring the furious creature.

Satchel took notice of this, and had a really bad idea. “HEY, BIG UGLY BITCH BABY!” he yelled at the monster, drawing its attention, surprisingly. “BETCHA CAN’T CATCH ME!” The Phase-shift pilot ran towards a group of Spetres, leading the monster to a trap. Throwing a few charges on the bots bellow him, Satchel turned to face the creature, and started running straight for it. Catching on to what he had planned, Fade pulled out her Thunderbolt, and fired at the monster, slowing it down as it reached the explosive laden robots. Satchel phased into the void as he reached the monster, planting a charge on its back as he phased back to reality. Satchel heled the detonator in his hand, ready to blow a hole through the monster’s torso. “Missed me.” *CLICK-CLICK*

Nothing. The detonator didn’t work. In a panicked confusion, Satchel kept trying to trigger the charges to no avail. He looked up to a monster looming over him, an angry look in its eyes. “So… about the bitch baby comment-AAAAHHHHH!” The monster pounced onto the simulacrum, scratching and tearing at his metallic frame. Taylor was overwhelmed by the IMC, and Fade didn’t have a clear shot at the charge on its back.

Suddenly, there was a flash of green light, and the charges exploded. A pained roar was heard from the cloud of smoke left by the explosion, and the monster ran off into the forest leaving a trail of blood.

Fade saw more flashes of green, accompanied by an unrecognizable high-pitched sound, like an L-Star on helium, knocking down grunts and spectres one by one in quick succession. She looked for the source of the lights and sound, and in her searching, she was sneak attacked from behind by a Stalker. Fade tried to raise her Alternator to meet the Stalker, but the machine caught her arm before she could bring it up to its head. Fade attempted a melee attack with her other hand, but the Stalker caught that arm too. The pilot struggled to free herself from robot’s intense grip, when another green flash pierced its way through the Stalker’s head, freeing the pilot. She could feel the familiar warmth of superheated plasma radiating from the melting head of the stalker.

There were a few weapons in the Frontier that used plasma, but none of them were accurate enough to go through something so cleanly. Fade looked up from the Stalker, to the roof, where she saw an inhuman figure firing bursts of green plasma at the IMC, from a weapon the likes of which she had never seen before. The figure turned its head, now facing the pilot. Fade stood frozen like a deer in headlights, as the figure turned the weapon in her direction. Noticing the apparent threat, Fade raised her gun towards the roof. The figure on the roof fired just next to Fade, and an IMC grunt fell to the ground behind her. More of the IMC were taking notice of where they were being shot from, and started making there way over to the figure and Fade. Fade looked upwards to the stranger on the roof, as he stepped off the edge and landed on the ground in a roll.

You would have needed a Jump-kit to have not broken your legs from the fall he had just made, but whoever or whatever this was seemed to be completely fine.

Fade set off toward the impending fight, in a slide hop. The apparently inhuman stranger, was already laying waste to the small army of grunts, taking them out with precision and grace like Fade had never seen before. Every move he made was like that of a dance, and every shot made was dead on target. When his weapon had apparently run out of ammunition, the stranger quickly slung it onto his back and ripped another gun out of the hands of a grunt, before killing them with their own rifle.

When that gun was empty, the stranger dropped it and turned invisible. Fade could still see him though, pilots were naturally more perceptive than most, but all Fade could really see was a quick moving shimmer. The shimmer moved behind the grunts, and a blue glowing ball, with blue smoke or steam emitting from it, and a high-pitched whine got stuck to one of the grunts. A second later, the ball exploded in a cloud of plasma, killing the enemy soldiers where they stood.

The stranger became visible again, and Fade could more easily make out his features. He was tall, with dark grey skin and purple armor. His legs were shaped similarly to a Titans, with two front facing knees and a set of backwards knees. Fade had never seen something like this being before, and was hesitant to approach him. She wouldn’t need to though, as the remaining racks of Stalkers activated, and fired at their positions.

Fade went on her radio attempting to call her remaining fellow pilot, getting no response, and the alien organism ran towards the robots attacking them, retrieving a silver object stuck to the side of his leg armor.

The Stalkers fired their L-stars at the incoming combatant, who was dodging every shot with ease. The alien ignited two blue beams of light from the item in his hand, and began slicing through the Stalkers with little effort. As Fade saw the alien being cut through the robots, she thought that who or whatever this was, they had to be crazy to run at a group of Stalkers like that, and at the same time she thought that the way he was moving was incredibly graceful, almost like a dance.

The alien sliced one of the Stalkers in the back, triggering an overload. Noticing this, he kicked the detonating robot towards the others, knocking another one of them to the ground before it blew up, taking a couple others with it. Fade stood watching, impressed by the show of skill and grace in front of her. Then she noticed the Tone approaching from behind him. “BEHIND YOU!” Fade warned. The alien warrior turned around, facing the 20 ft tall machine. As the alien cloaked and repositioned himself, Fade ran to what remained of Satchel, collecting the detonator for the charges from the arm torn from the mechanical body.

Examining the device, she found that the antenna needed to transmit the detonation signal to the charges was out of place. Fixing the antenna as best as she could, Fade attempted to trigger the bombs only for nothing to happen. “Damn it. Well, time for something dumb and reckless.”

Fade ran along the walls, Thunderbolt in hand, towards the Titan searching for the invisible being on the ground. Fade fired a ball of lighting at the Titan, diverting the attention of the pilot inside from the alien to her. “HEY ASSHOLE! SUCK IT!” Fade shouted at the Apex Predator.

The Tone started firing at the pilot, missing every shot as she ran across the walls and continued firing at the Titan. Fade kept trying the detonator in between shots, hoping that it would eventually decide to work. Fade was out of Thunderbolt ammo, and didn’t have any real way of doing more damage to the Titan. The alien uncloaked, running to the Tone with a glowing green weapon in his hand, firing a burst of plasma and stunning the Titan.

As it was stunned, Fade could see the alien jumping several feet into the air, and grabbing onto the Titan’s 40mm cannon. Swinging himself up to the Titan’s hull, the alien climbed over to the front hatch, igniting the sword. Cutting open the cockpit, the alien now faced the Apex Predator. The pilot tried to shove the alien off of the Titan, but was kicked back into his seat, and stuck with a plasma grenade. Shutting the cockpit and launching himself off the Titan, the alien hit the ground in a super hero landing, as the inside of the Tone exploded, and it collapsed to the ground.

Fade stood in awe and impressed by the being in front of her. She noticed what sounded like laughter, and what might be a smile on the alien’s face, when - *BANG*.


	4. Chapter 4

Fade awoke to the sound of music, and a throbbing pain in her head. As her senses slowly came back to her, she heard a voice humming along to the music. 

“Oh, you’re awake!” the voice said.

“Am I though?” Fade wearily responded, her sight fuzzy and out of focus. 

“Well you weren’t doing much of anything for the last few hours, and now you are, so… I’d say so.” 

Taking more notice of her surroundings, Fade found herself lying against a fallen log in the forest, her helmet sitting on top of the log. “What… ugh, what happened, and why does… everything hurt?” Fade asked, pulling herself up   
to sit on the log. “I remember a big monster, a Titan, and there was an…” Fade’s sight returned, and she saw the face of an alien being sitting in front of her. 

“WOAH!” Fade pulled her Alternator on the alien, frightened and confused. 

“Hey! Its alright.” He said in an attempt to calm her down, and to get the gun out of his face. “I’m not going to hurt you or anything.” 

“Why should I believe that?” 

“If I was, don’t you think I would have while you were unconscious?” 

It was a fair point. He would have had every chance to kill her while she was out cold, but he didn’t. Fade lowered her weapon. They sat there quietly for a moment, and a thousand questions ran through the pilot’s head.

“Are… are you an alien?” It was a stupid question with an obvious answer, but Fade didn’t really know what else to say to break the tension. 

“I suppose I am, though you could argue that that’s just a matter of perspective,” he said with a kind of an awkward chuckle. “Are you alright?”

“I think so.” The silence returned between the two of them, until the dark-grey colored alien spoke again.

“I’m Feizel, by the way. Feizel L’Maru. Who are you?”

The pilot responded hesitantly. “Fade… Pilot Fade Walker.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Walker.” 

“Pilot,” Fade corrected him. She liked her job title, maybe a little too much.

“Pilot Walker.” He corrected himself.

Fade took a moment to process everything that just happened. “So… what exactly happened, and why does my head hurt so much?” 

“There was an explosion. You were closer to it than I was, and you got blasted into a tree and hit your head. You’re lucky you had a strong helmet on.”   
Fade noticed Feizel’s armor was covered in dents and duct tape. It looked like there wasn’t any part of it that hadn’t fallen off or broke at some point, and there were numerous scratches in the purple coloring. She had a better view of him up close and in the sunlight, than she did when they were constantly moving around in the dark, and she could see a small device off to the side, similar in design to an old smartphone or the devices pilots use for boosts, that was connected to a pair of earphones hanging from his neck.

“Thirsty?” Feizel asked. 

Fade snapped out of her analysis of the creature in front of her. “What?” 

“I have some water if you’d like. You’ve been out for a while and you could probably use it.” He pulled a bottle of water from a tape-covered backpack, and heled it out to the pilot. 

Fade took the bottle from his tetradactyl hands. “Thanks.” He was right about Fade needing a drink of water, and after a good sip of it, she was able to focus more clearly without her throat aching at her. “So, what are you exactly? I   
can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like you before in The Frontier.”

“Probably because I’ve never been to ‘The Frontier’ before,” Feizel said. “I’m a Sangheili, well, mostly at least. Though, most humans I’ve encountered just call us Elites.”

Fade was handling all of this far better than she ever would have thought. She had heard stories from travelers and explorers in the frontier about people encountering intelligent alien life, but she always figured they were just crazy or seeking attention. Now here she was apparently getting acquainted with an alien. 

“Why are you doing this? Making sure I’m okay, I mean.” Fade asked the Elite. 

“Well,” Feizel said, “you got me out of that cage, so it was only fair that I make sure you were alright.”

In all honesty, Fade was kind of expecting a very different answer, like I’m just saving you for food later, or SURPRISE, you are full of eggs now! Though, those are probably just ideas she got from movies. 

The Elite stood up from where he was sitting and started gathering his belongings. “What are you doing?” Fade asked. 

“I’m going to track down the Goliath.” 

“That monster?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why? Surely it would have bled out by now with that hole that got blown into it.” 

“Were it so easy. It’s likely that it was more annoyed than anything else.” 

“Okay, but why go after it at all though. You did see it rip apart a Titan, right?” 

“I’ve seen monsters like that one rip apart a planet.”

Fade wasn’t sure whether to take him seriously or not. “A whole planet?” 

“In under a week.” the elite responded, very technically shoving his things into place inside his backpack.  
Fade picked up her helmet and slipped it back on her head, and attempted to call Militia command on the helmets radio. All that came through though was static and silence. Pulling the helmet off and inspecting it, she found that the radio was broken, likely smashed upon impact with the tree she was blasted into. There was also a noticeable crack in the visor, though that was just more annoying than anything else. “Damn it.”

“Something wrong, Pilot?” Feizel asked, zipping his backpack closed.

“Helmet radio’s busted. You wouldn’t happen to have a working radio on you?”

“No, and I doubt one would have survived that explosion. You were right about blowing that place to hell.”

“Might be one on the old shipwreck by the colony.” Fade said, thinking out loud.

“Colony?”

Fade hadn’t noticed she was thinking out loud. “Yeah, there’s a shipwreck a few kilometers away. There’s a colony nearby there.”

Fade saw Feizel’s deep blue eyes darting around, looking like he was thinking about something. “Is it populated?”

“Probably, it’s only a small colony though. Why do you ask?”

Feizel had that look back on his face, like he was considering something. “I’m coming with you, then.”

Fade was surprised by what the alien just said. “What? Why?”

“Monsters like that Goliath tend to go for wherever is most heavily populated to hunt, “ Feizel said, “so that’s where it’s most likely to go. Also I don’t know the way there, so if its all the same to you, I’m coming with you to this shipwreck.”

Fade took a moment to consider. This whole situation was weird. REALLY weird. But with her teammate’s dead, and no one else around for miles, letting him tag along might be her best chance to get out of this mess. Plus, if she could get this alien back to command, Briggs would probably forgive her losing her teammates. Fade knew that she did kind of fuck up, but considering the circumstances, there would likely be some wiggle room she could take advantage of. They probably had backups of the simulacrum, anyway, so she could probably get another chance at the SRS if she was lucky. 

“Alright then.“ Fade said. “You can come with, but I’m keeping an eye on you.”

“Fair enough.”

This was going to be an interesting journey.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really written anything before, so bear with me on this. I like making up characters for the games I like, it makes me feel more connected to the games. I even gave my Destiny characters names, and personalities. I came up with the two main characters of this story, Fade and Feizel, during an exceptionally stressful time in my life, and these characters helped me to come to terms with things. I've been wanting to put them into a story for a while now, and I'm excited to see where they will go in the future.


End file.
